Florence Acan (Acan means - rather aptly - "Living with poverty") is the mother of four children.
Her husband died last year. He was a conductor on a taxi. He developed a cough that was so bad that he eventually coughed so hard that it ripped his lungs apart. This type of cough is more common than it should be in Kitgum.
Every month she receives a UN sponsored World Food Program (WFP) package. It contains: fifty cups of maize, eight cups of beans, one-and-a-half liters of cooking oil and three cups of pasta. She converts some of this into a local alcoholic brew that she sells to the Ugandan Army soldiers. She makes about 10,000 shillings ($US 8.31) a month from the brew.
She is living in Kitgum because her village is no longer safe.
Some years ago the LRA rebels raided her village. Many of her people were captured. The LRA would taunt their male captives by asking them if they wanted a long or a short sleeve shirt. A long sleeve shirt would mean an amputation above the elbow, a short sleeve shirt above the wrist. Florence said that would often cut of their lips as well.
Three of her husbands brothers were captured by the LRA during the raid. The brothers were too old and the LRA felt that if they dragged them all the way into the Sudan that they would only escaped, so they were killed.
Many of the old women's hands were cut off as a punishment for feeding those opposed to the LRA.
The younger children were kidnapped by the LRA and probably went on to become child soldiers.
Her nephews - aged six and twelve - were kidnapped. After three years in the LRA, the twelve year old managed to escape. He reported that the six year old was still alive. He is living with his parents in the IDP camps (Internally Displaced People) camps.
Florence is praying that the peace talks will succeed. She feels that the ICC (International Criminal Court) should leave Joseph Kony - the leader of the LRA - alone as that would bring him out of the bush and the peace talks can proceed.